Don’t vote me off the island: PM says Australia has suffered from two decades of leadership spills
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised a second term of united and orderly government if Australians back him at the election, in a move to attack the Coalition over its last period in power and dismiss the idea of changing leaders every three years.
Albanese said Australia had not been served well by the constant change to prime ministers over the past two decades, while fending off questions about whether he had broken an election pledge to cut electricity prices by $275 a year.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during the 2025 Australian of the Year awards at the National Arboretum in Canberra on Saturday 25 January 2025.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The comments came as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton sent a new signal about cutting waste in government but said this would help to pay for frontline services, as he ruled out following United States president Donald Trump in setting up a new department to end inefficiencies.
Albanese was challenged on his policy record in a Sky News interview that aired on Sunday and ended with a question about whether he was worried that Australians wanted to dump him in a “vote them off the island” scenario akin to reality television.
He argued the country had suffered from the leadership turmoil that removed Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister in party votes, without Australians deciding the outcomes at elections.
“It is true that the last time a prime minister won two elections in a row, served a term and was elected, was John Howard in 2004 so it’s been more than two decades,” he said.
“I don’t think that that has served Australia well. I think that both political parties are guilty of that with changes, without an election, to the prime minister.
“Now, I think that three-year terms is [sic] very short as it is. My government has been stable, has been orderly, has been united.”
Dutton overhauled his leadership team on Saturday by naming Sydney Liberal MP David Coleman as spokesman for foreign affairs and giving Indigenous spokeswoman Jacinta Nampajinpa Price the additional portfolio of government efficiency.
